LOCKING DEVICE TO LOCK AND/OR UNLOCK MOVABLE CAR CLOSURE ELEMENTS

Abstract

A locking device is proposed to lock and/or to unlock a movable car closure element like a car door, a trunk lid, a front lid, a tailgate or the like, wherein the locking device has an electric control unit and/or a drive unit to control and/or to drive a movement of the movable closure element. The locking device shall be usable in applications without a handle for manual movements and is working with disconnected regular power supply. According to the invention, at least one supercapacitor is provided to store energy for operating the locking device in an emergency case.

Claims

1-18. (canceled)

19. A locking device to lock and/or to unlock a movable car closure element like a car door, a trunk lid, a front lid, a tailgate or the like, wherein the locking device has an electric control unit and/or a drive unit to control and/or to drive a movement of the movable closure element, wherein at least one supercapacitor is provided to store energy for operating the locking device in an emergency case.

20. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the at least one supercapacitor is connected as a power supply to the electric control unit and/or the drive unit in the emergency case.

21. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the at least one supercapacitor is located on a printed circuit board and/or inside a housing of the electric control unit and/or the drive unit.

22. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the at least one supercapacitor and the control unit and the drive unit are located on a printed circuit board and/or inside the housing.

23. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the control unit controls and the drive unit drives a locking operation and/or an unlocking operation and/or an opening movement and/or a closing movement of the moveable car closure element.

24. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the at least one supercapacitor is connected with a charge contact of a DC/DC converter and/or an AC/DC converter, which is connected to a regular power supply of a car.

25. The locking device as in claim 24, wherein the regular power supply is an ignition battery of the car.

26. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein a voltmeter is provided to measure a voltage at a charge contact of the at least one supercapacitor.

27. The locking device as in claim 26, wherein the control unit is configured to activate a low power consumption mode for the locking device if a voltage at the charge contact falls below a defined threshold.

28. The locking device as in claim 26, wherein a separate emergency battery is provided for a charging connection to the at least one supercapacitor.

29. The locking device as in claim 28, wherein the separate emergency battery is located on a printed circuit board and/or inside a housing of the control unit and/or the drive unit.

30. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the control unit and/or the drive unit and/or the locking device is located on or inside the car closure element.

31. The locking device as in claim 28, wherein a monitoring device to monitor a status of the separate emergency battery and/or a manual access to change the separate emergency battery is provided.

32. The locking device as in claim 28, wherein the control unit is configured to connect the at least one supercapacitor automatically to the separate emergency battery, when a low power consumption mode is activated.

33. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein the control unit is adopted to control a charging mode for the at least one supercapacitor.

34. The locking device as in claim 19, wherein two voltage thresholds are defined for a charging mode, and wherein the control unit is configured to start charging if a voltage at the at least one supercapacitor falls below a lower threshold and stop charging when the voltage of the at least one supercapacitor exceeds an upper threshold.

35. A car closure element comprising a car door, wherein a locking device according to claim 1 is provided.

36. A car with a closure element according to claim 35.

Description

[0023] Some embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the following drawings.

[0024] Especially show

[0025] FIG. 1 a schematic diagram of an electric arrangement according to the invention,

[0026] FIG. 2 a diagram of the embodiment according FIG. 1 with an additional emergency battery and

[0027] FIG. 3 a car door, in which the locking device can be placed.

[0028] FIG. 1 shows a locking device 1 comprising a motor 2, a control unit 3 including a drive unit 4 and a bank 5 of supercapacitors 6. A car battery 7 is connected to the bank 5 of supercapacitors 6 via a DC/DC converter 8. If necessary more motors 2 can be provided for a door release and/or driving.

[0029] Via an input line 9 the control unit 3 is connected to an input line 10, which supplies the DC/DC converter with the battery power. Via an input line 11 the control unit 3 is connected to a line 12 between the DC/DC converter and the bank 5 of supercapacitors 6.

[0030] A drive line 13 connects the drive unit 4 with the motor 2 and a bus line 19 connects the control unit 3 with a car bus system i.e. a CAN Bus. A control line 14 connects the control unit 3 with the DC/DC converter 8.

[0031] In the regular operation mode the supercapacitors 6 are charged by the car battery 7 and the DC/DC converter 8, which prepares the appropriate charge voltage. The control unit is able to monitor the battery voltage via the input line 9. The DC/DC converter 8 is controlled by the control unit 3 via the control line 14. The charge voltage of the supercapacitors 6 is monitored by the control unit 3 via the input line 11.

[0032] To optimally use the capacity of the supercapacitors 6, the system proposed here keeps the voltage across the bank 5 of capacitors 6 constant. Even if the power source of the car battery 7 is increasing or decreasing, the charge of the supercapacitors will always be the same. By missing power source the control unit 3 will enter in a very low power consumption mode allowing the supercapacitors 6 to keep most of the charge available for a large time interval.

[0033] The charge is enough to perform access recognition, validation and perform unlock and drive the door motors 2 at least two times.

[0034] The embodiment according FIG. 2 shows an additional emergency battery 15 connected to the DO/DC converter 8 and monitored via the input line 16 by the control unit 3. This emergency battery extends the time interval for which the locking device is working in case of a crash or an exhausted car battery over a long time for example one or more years. Furthermore it is possible to change this battery timely, because it is monitored and the control unit 3 is able to send a message to the operator/driver via the bus line 19.

[0035] A battery change or other service or repair actions are easy to do, when the complete locking device or at least the battery holder is placed manually accessible. For example a placement in a car door 17 as shown in FIG. 3 is useful especially in a housing 18 on the narrow side of a car door.

[0036] 1. Locking device

[0037] 2. Motor

[0038] 3. Control unit

[0039] 4. Drive unit

[0040] 5. Bank

[0041] 6. Supercapacitor

[0042] 7. Car battery

[0043] 8. DC/DC converter

[0044] 9. Input line

[0045] 10. Input line

[0046] 11. Input line

[0047] 12. Line

[0048] 13. Drive line

[0049] 14. Control line

[0050] 15. Emergency battery

[0051] 16. Monitoring line

[0052] 17. Car door

[0053] 18. Housing

[0054] 19. Bus line